USA > New Jersey > Union County > Plainfield > Centenary, First Baptist Church, Plainfield, New Jersey, 1818-1918, November 24th, 25th, 1918 > Part 2
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#Gerchied d. Nederl Hervormde Kerk. t. i. 1819, p. 148.
*See Zabbe and Crossart XI. 1226. Baptist Magazine, February, 1850, p. 84.
¡So say Voltaire, Niebuhr and other writers. See also Encyclop. Brittan, 9th Ed., Vol. XV, p. 78 .¿ Vol. 2, pp. 394-395.
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battle, and never accounted the odds against them, were not Presby- terians, like the Ministers in the Westminster Assembly of Divines, or the Legislators in the Long Par- liament. They were Independents, the Baptists forming the largest ele- ment-Men who believed in self- government in the Church as well as in the State." * * "With
them stood Roger Williams, who had brought back to England the liberal ideas which he had carried to Rhode Island, the young Sir Henry Vane, and others like him. These men could not be persuaded here any more than in America that liberty of conscience was an evil."
I can hardly refrain from quot- ing here the eloquent encomium of our American Historian Bancroft on Roger Williams as "the first person in modern Christendom to assert in its plentitude the doctrine of the liberty of conscience." Bancroft practically places our brave Baptist . among earth's discoverers and men of genius. He writes: "If Coperni- cus is held in perpetual reverence because on his deathbed he publish- ed to the world that the sun is the centre of our system; if the name of Kepler is preserved for his sagac- ity in detecting the laws of the plan- etary motion; if the genius of New- ton has been almost adored for dis- secting a ray of light and weighing heavenly bodies as in balance-let there be for the name of Roger Wil- liams a place among those who have advanced moral science and made themselves the benefactors of man- kind."¡
Whilst rejoicing in this historic praise, I may venture the remark that Roger Williams inherited, rather than discovered, the great principle which he so wisely and courageously enunciated-Liberty of Conscience. It had already been
strongly-held Baptist doctrine · through troublous periods for more than a millennium and a half.
In quoting reference to Roger Williams and like types of Baptist
bravery, I am (in passing) momen- tarily reminded of a dear woman of my own ancestry, Mary Manning Fitz Randolph, who a hundred years ago today was helping to constitute the beginning of this First Baptist Church of Plainfield. Her father, Enoch Manning, was a Baptist Pa- triot-Soldier. And it was his broth- er, James Manning, who in 1764 oc- cupied Roger Williams' pulpit at Providence as the first President of the Baptist Rhode Island College, afterwards Brown University.
Amongst numerous tributes to the fidelity to Freedom of secular ad- herents to our faith, I quote one from the distinguished and some- what free-thinking Historian, Gold- win Smith. In his "United King- dom" he writes: "Of the churches, the Baptist deserves the credit of being the first sanctuary of Liberty of Conscience. The English Bap- tists in Amsterdam had said in their confession of faith-'The Mag- istrate is not to meddle with re- ligion or matters of conscience, nor compel men to this or that form of religion; because Christ is the King and Law-giver of the Church and Conscience.' "}
At this present juncture of his- tory we are emerging from a desper- ate but successful struggle "to make the world fit for Democracy to live in." Baptists have for ages led in the endeavor to constitute a Democracy fit to live in our world -- a nation founded on righteousness and reason. Alas for human incer- titude! the British Nation in the middle of the 17th century tasted and tested a Commonwealth. Al most in a moment they turned from it-like Israel from the True Wor- ship to the Golden Calf-and em- braced the reckless royalty of Charles II, steeped in license and lewdness-with true liberty long postponed.
It was under this ignoble rule of Charles II that the Jerseys were settled by our God-fearing ances- tors. The lands they bought from
¡Bancroft Hist. U. S. Vol. 1, 298-299.
¿Goldwin Smith, United Kingdom, Political History, Vol. I, p. 548.
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the Indians (and their possession of which was afterward confirmed by King Charles' Lieutenant-Govern- or) were, in some cases at least, afterward again given away through royal charter; and the settlers were left to contend for their property against these later grants as best they might. ; Charles was (toward his brother and his courtiers, gen- erous in respect of things that did not belong to him. As Bancroft has said: "During the first four years of his power he gave away a large part of a continent. Could he have continued as lavish, in the course of his reign he would have given away the world."*
Before entering upon the outlined story of our Baptist Church in New Jersey, I must refer to a tribute to Baptist loyalty paid by George Washington in the difficult days
of Reconstruction following the Revolutionary War. Dr. Strong has kindly called my attention to a letter addressed by the Father of his Country to the "General Com- mittee Representing the United Baptist Churches in Virginia." In the course of this letter Washington wrote: "While I recollect with sat- isfaction that the religious societies of which you are members have been, throughout America, uniform- ly and almost unanimously the firm friends of civil liberty, and the persevering promoters of our glor- ious Revolution, I cannot hesitate to believe that they will be the faith- ful supporters of a free yet efficient general government. Under this pleasing expectation I rejoice to as- sure them that they may rely upon my best wishes and endeavors to advance their prosperity."
In Revolutionary times then, ac- cording to this testimony, our for- bears. of Baptist Principles were "firm friends of civil liberty." They were brave soldiers, marching. and fighting for freedom.
Again in the great Civil War, throughout our Northern States the
Baptists labored and fought for the cause of Union and Freedom. The single church of which I was just then a member sent two hundred men into active military duty* Baptists marched by tens of thou- sands in that noble service. In the present war to protect the Principle of Democracy (the distinguishing principle of Baptists in all ages) the number of Baptist soldiers in Allied armies has undoubtedly run into hundreds of thousands.
To revert to the time of plant- ing in this, our precious soil, this goodly seed of Baptist growth-About the time when the ancestors of some of us who gath- er here today came from Mas- sachusetts to Piscataway, New Jer- sey (half a dozen miles distant from this spot) in order to enjoy a larger freedom of religion-namely about 1,669-a company of Baptists with some Quakers, under the leadership of Rev. Obadiah Jones (who at Bos- ton had endured a public whipping for fidelity to
New Testament trutht) took up a considerable tract of land in East Jersey. These guar- anteed in their patent "unto any and all who shall plant and inhab- it any of the lands aforesaid, they shall have free liberty of conscience without any molestation or disturb- ance whatsoever in their way of worship." This has been good Bap- tist practice from before the days of Constantine-albeit in the earlier day .the brethren were not called "Baptists." They continued to be simply Christians, with such numer- ous reproachful and opprobrious epithets as their enemies from time to time chose to attach. The word Baptist-or Ana-Baptist-(re-bap- tiser)-was itself applied contempt- uously. Always have they stocd for Conscience and Freedom; and by this principle, as well as by their re- ligious ordinances, can their history be practically traced.
When our Baptist forbears came to Piscataway and organized there
tSee Hatfield's History of Elizabeth. "Bancroft, Vol. I, p. 433.
* Church Records, First Baptist Church, Newark.
See Bancroft Hist. Vol. I. p. 367.
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one of the four Mother Churches of the Provinces of East and West Jersey (the other three being Mid- dletown, Cohansey and Cape May), the Stewart family were near losing their tenure of the English throne. John Bunyan-that great Baptist of Bedford jail-had recently given to the world his Pilgrim's Progress. Richard Baxter and John Locke
were living. Milton had just pub- lished "Paradise Lost." Men's minds and consciences were waking up. America felt the impetus, but was far away and as yet poor in means and men. New York and Philadelphia were villages-Tren- ton, now Capital of our State, did not exist for many a year afterward. Even seventy years later-almost up to the time when our Scotch Plains church was constituted-all the people of both Jerseys did not greatly exceed in number the pres- ent population of Plainfield and North Plainfield.
This planting of Baptists in New Jersey was more than a hundred years before our American Revolu- tion. The country was a wilderness, inhabited by Indians and wild ani- mals. Through the woods the few roads were but bridle-paths. "A settler's home might not be seen from morning to night."; The Bap- tist meetings were far apart, and public worship was attended with some danger and much inconven- venience. Gradually, but slowly, the country became settled-mainly with good people, of good principles. The West India Company of Hol- land, chartered in 1629, enjoined on their colonists in New Jersey and New York "in the speediest manner to find out ways and means where- by they might support a minister and a schoolmaster."
A Baptist Meeting House was built at Scotch Plains in 1742. This was a centre of Worship and fra- ternity for more than a score of miles. From it twenty-two mem- bers were in 1792 dismissed, to con- stitute the Samptown church. Of this Samptown church, Reverend Ja-
cob Fitz Randolph was the first Pastor, as at a later date he was, al- so, of the First Baptist Church of Plainfield. He began his
pastor- ate here with the formation of this society in 1818. At that date Plain- field (including North Plainfield) had about two hundred and fifty in- habitants.
It may be noted here that the Pastor's salary was $250 per year; and so, if a per capita assessment had been practicable, his services would have cost each inhabitant of the village a dollar a year. The mother church at Scotch Plains agreed on a like stipend, but sup- plemented it with a supply of fire- wood. I remember well myself how in the village period of Plainfield, and in my own boyhood days, the current needs of the minister were somewhat patronizingly supervised by the good deacons, and were oc- casionally eked out with a "dona- tion visit."
Before 1818 the Baptists of Plain- field had attended worship chiefly at Samptown, about two miles south- westward. Our Plainfield church had thirty-four members at its or- ganization in 1818, and in 1822 it had fifty-two members. Reverend Jacob Fitz Randolph, after a life of devoted usefulness, died in 1828 at the age of seventy-three. In that year Rev. Daniel T. Hill became pas- tor and filled that function until 1839, when he resigned. I knew him well in later years as pastor of the Second Baptist Church. My grandfather bought the house built by Mr. Hill nearly opposite the Meeting House at the East corner of Front and New Streets (now still standing), and several of my child- hood years were passed there. Mr. Hill was a vigorous man and an earnest, aggressive preacher. Under his charge this church increased to 274 members.
In May, 1839, Rev. Simeon J. Drake was called to the pastorate and continued in it until his death in 1862. His was a lovable char- acter, and he retained always the
#See Griffith's History of Baptists in New Jersey.
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respect and affection of the whole community. As a boy, approaching thirteen years of age, I was baptised in February, 1851, by Mr. Drake in Green Brook, a little west of the old church-building. I remember that when I called at the pastor's home about that time, he discoursed genially of
his own happy early Christian experience, and how even the birds, blithely singing in the woods, seemed to felicitate him on his newly-found hope. My only as- sociate in baptism on that winter day was William Cleaver Wilkinson, whose name has attained celebrity amongst Baptist clergymen and writers, and whose ever industrious pen has produced many notable and excellent books. At the age of eighty-five he is still writing, his last book, now fresh from the press -"Concerning Jesus Christ, the Son of Man," being his best. I believe that he and I are the only survivors of the church-membership of that year, 1851.
Rev. Dr. David J. Yerkes succeeded Mr. Drake in the pastorate in 1863, and for fully two-score years served with faith, patience, and untiring devotion. He died as pastor emeri- tus in 1905. He and his wife and - all his family were always greatly respected and loved. He baptised 1,029 persons into membership.
Rev. Dr. John A. Chambliss was the fifth pastor, serving eight years until his resignation in 1911. He died in 1916. He was one of the most eloquent of preachers, and his eloquence was all the more genuine and impressive because restrained and classical. He was a scholar of high attainment and a genial, whole- hearted minister and friend. His wife also greatly aided him and the church. He baptised into member- ship 172 persons.
Rev. Dr. Philip B. Strong came to us in February, 1912, and is still making his own strong record. Many additions have been made to the church under his earnest ministry; and, encouraged by his lofty patriot- ism, the congregation has contrib-
uted generously of men and means to support the Government in all noble endeavor.
I may here be permitted to re- mark that it has been my privi- lege to know personally and . well all the men who have regularly ministered here-except the first. Though called to live elsewhere for a time, about two-thirds of my church-membership years have been spent here, and I have been happy in the continuous use of one pew for more than forty-five years.
I might also remark that the fact that in a whole century this pros- perous and harmonious body has had only half a dozen pastors at least indicates that Baptists are a good and pleasant people to live with.
As writes St. James, "The wis- dom from above is first pure, then peaceable."*
The property on which this church edifice stands was in 1818 given to the Society by John Man- ning and John Wilson, and a build- ing fund of about $2,500 was at once subscribed. These gifts be- speak the liberality and self-sacri- fice of that small early band of de- voted disciples and their friends and sympathizers.
Under the ardent and effective preaching of Rev. Daniel T. Hill, the congregation so increased that an extension of fifteen feet was made to the church building. I re- member well the frame meeting- house at which I first attended wor- ship here, about 1845. It had a deep basement, used for. Sunday School and devotional meetings, ap- proached from the west side rather than from the east-as at present. The ample yard in the rear was of- ten thronged by the carriages of the farmer-members, who their . teams from their country drove homes to the various meetings. The pews had doors-unnecessary, but in accord with custom-and having no relation to "close communion." The pulpit was somewhat higher. The baptistry was Green Brook, or
*James 3:17.
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rather a pond in the Brook. The interior of the meeting-house was severely simple. The music (which was at first non-existent, so far as choir or leadership was concerned) was later in the gallery at the south end of the edifice, facing the pulpit and behind the congregation.
When the existing excellent stone edifice was built, shortly after the Civil War (out of a new quarry in the mountain which has yielded lit- tle else) the old wooden church of my boyhood days was sold, and was moved to the rear of the lot at Front and New Streets, on which I passed several of my earlier years. And there it still stands, and is used for human habitation. The good stone edifice has now weathered the storms of half a century, and its great worship-room is still a mod- el of simplicity and beauty-all hon- or to the wise and generous souls who built it and gave for it of their substance and their lives! Best of all, there has ever been a home-like and spiritual atmosphere pervading this place.
And here I would fain refer to the harmony, brotherhood and co- operation which have prevailed- and, in the course of years, increas- ingly-amongst all Christian denom- inations during the century which has practically marked the limit of this settlement of Plainfield as well as of this First Baptist Church. The Baptists and Quakers were the earlier settlers; but those who came after them of various names have reciprocated the hospitality which was cordially extended to them, and we have had a continued feast of good feeling throughout the com- munity. Reverence toward God and love toward men make always the best basis for community-peace.
All the same, it is well for us who are Plainfield Baptists, at the end of a hundred years, to "thank God and take courage"; and to take, as well, humble satisfaction in our sweet and sacred traditions, and to consecrate ourselves anew to the Master's service.
Here in our Church have our sor- rows been assuaged, .our minds in-
structed and broadened, and our hopes and joys re-invigorated, at such periods and occasions as the Divine Bridegroom has visited His Loyal Bride, The Church.
And what message comes to us today from those whose serene souls of the blessed past have gone for- ward to their reward? May they not be permitted perchance to look down upon this Centenary Celebra- tion from heights of attainment be- yond the Jordan? Possibly this cur- sory Review of a History which they made, may seem to them quite inadequate-but could it appear fu- tile ?
Who will deny even that Baptist Professors and Martyrs of earlier ages may today view us with smiles of benediction? But what especial- ly of those who have been of our household in the faith-about the tombs of some of whom in our peaceful cemetery the orderly sea- sons have waxed and waned whilst successors in trust and effort have struggled as best they might with Life's problems-what of those whom some of us have knitted to our hearts in bonds of more than fraternal affection, who have been called to precede us for a little while into the solemn and glorious hereafter? What today shall we say or think of the interest in this church which they may still be per- mitted to retain :- those who bore the familiar old-time names of Fitz Randolph, .Hill, Drake, Yerkes, Chambliss, Williamson, Smalley, Balen, Brown, Burr, Butler, Boice, Stelle, Stead, Runyon, Ayres, Lenox, Coon, Dunn, Manning, Wilson, Ever- itt, Ryder, Marsh, Mccutchen, Flan- ders, Leonard, Dobbins, Thickstun, Cooley, Case, Chapman, Compton, Conner, Taylor, Thorn, Vail, Shreve, Vermeule, White, Worth, Smith, Probasco, Robins, Serrell, Vander-
beek, Thompson, Aldrich, and a
and
goodly host of other saints brothers who were of us, and with us, but now
are “over there"? May they not be among the "minis- tering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of sal- vation ?" I love to think that they
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may even now put forth toward us their old-time, but purified affec- tion, as toward the dear people of their own choice; and may, even now, brood benignly over the very
place of their ancient and holy cult, and over this congregation, as today it holds here sweet worship and sacred communion.
L. V. F. RANDOLPH.
A Typical Preacher of the Nineteenth Century
Address of David Jayne Hill at the
Centenary of the First Baptist Church of Plainfield, New Jersey, November. 25, 1918
In accepting the invitation with which your Committee has honored me, to come to Plainfield and join with you in celebrating the Centen- ary of this Church, I experience a double pleasure. On the one hand, I am permitted to make the ac- quaintance of the present member- ship, composed in part at least of the descendants of those to whom my dear father ministered in this Church ninety years ago; and, on the other, after a very long absence, I have the privilege of returning to this beautiful city, in which he re- sided for nearly a quarter of a cen- tury, and where during a later min- istry I was born.
; Centennial anniversaries like the one we now celebrate are milestones by which we
may measure the march of human progress. When an institution has existed for a hundred years, this fact alone im- plies a vitality that warrants the measurement of its achievements by the permanent standards of human values; for if it did not share in the general advance, it would long ago have proved wholly out of date and would have deserved to be aban- doned.
It is safe to assume, therefore, that the foundations upon which this Church has been erected, as a spiritual fellowship, and upon which it still rests, were well .and wisely laid; and it may not be unprofitable to permit our thoughts to centre for a few moments upon the char- acter of the ministry in those early days and the personality of the men who served in it.
To this undertaking I can make only a very modest contribution;
but it is, perhaps, excusable for me to think first of all of the one hu- man being upon whose loving and faithful care I was in my youth most dependent, and to whom I owe an immeasurable debt of love and gratitude,-my father. If he were living today, he would be in his one hundred and fifteenth year, and it is now more than thirty years since his earthly ministry was ended by his death. It is not, then, alto- gether inappropriate, perhaps, that I, although his son, after this long interval of time ,should draw some lessons from his life-work upon an occasion which so directly recalls this subject to our minds; and yet I know that he would not wish me to do so in any sense that would seem to single him out from the brotherhood of the faithful disciples of the common Master whom they all served for any kind of eulogy or claim o pre-eminence. And this wish, which I do not hesitate to at- tribute to him, I shall faithfully re- spect.
In what I shall take the liberty of saying, my purpose is to suggest an estimate of the aims, the labors, and the results of the Christian minis- try, to which his whole life was con- secrated, and particularly of the in- fluence which the Christian ministry has had upon the development of our national life and our interna- tional position at the present time.
In speaking thus, I am not think- ing of my father as a specially con- spicuous figure in his day and gen- eration; but as one of a multitude of faithful men who, in modest places and without pretension, serv- ed as public teachers, shaping the 'thought and the character of their time, sometimes against great odds and at much personal sacrifice, in a manner that has made our coun-
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try in some respects different from any other in the world, and both capable and willing to serve man- kind, not as a materially profitable enterprise, but from a deep sense of duty to God and man.
It is not unworthy of comment that in a new country, rich in nat- ural resources and with untold pos- sibilities of wealth and power, men of high intelligence should have turned aside from the use of such splendid opportunities for personal aggrandizement to tell the story of the cross, and to continue the ener- gies of a lifetime as humble preach- ers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My father was one of these. As I review his life and labors, it is clear to me that wealth, the highest learning, and prominent public po- sition were all within the grasp of his natural capacities; nevertheless, pursuit of these attainments exert- ed no power of attraction to draw him from the path of the humble duties of the Christian ministry, in which he found a full measure of satisfaction. The one and only am- bition of his life was to be a faith- ful preacher of Christ and an effec- tive helper of his fellow-men.
. In this he did not stand alone. In every village and hamlet of this country there were men of like spir- it and purpose. Sectarian differ- ences, often sharp and polemical, were customary in his day; and, like others who thought differently, he was ready to defend the truth as he saw it; but the important matter is that this defence was actuated by the belief that it was the truth, and therefore vital to the integrity of Christian life and character. When compared with the intellectual in- differentism not uncommon at the . present time, we cannot fail to be thrilled by the heroism which, in the interest of sound doctrine, did not hesitate to divide communities, and even families, in that time of robust faith and fearless contro- versy. Regarding the question who was right and who was wrong, we may still differ; but that the middle decades of the Nineteenth Century comprised a period of intense relig-
ious growth and development in the United States, we cannot well deny.
It is to this period that Daniel T. Hill distinctly belonged. In his day society was less concentrated and less differentiated than at present. There were no large cities in this country, and the private pursuits of church members kept them much separated and were all-absorbing. When this church was founded in 1818, the population of New York City, the Metropolis of the country, numbered only about a hundred and fifty thousand souls, and most of the modern cities were mere villages.
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